A Life on our Planet by David Attenborough

If you have enjoyed watching wild life documentaries, there is a good chance you are familiar with Sir David Attenborough’s voice. He had traveled with his crew to every corner of the Earth to film animals in their natural habitat. Thanks to their efforts, we, sitting at home, could see wonders of mother Earth on a screen and appreciate the beauty of nature rather than the concrete jungle we build around us. Now, we have the chance to see what was happening behind the curtain through the story of none other than our beloved narrator, Sir David Attenborough. ‘A life on our Planet’ presents the life of Sir David from early age up until the publish of this book, how he followed his passion, the difficulties he faced while making all the documentaries, and most importantly, his witness statement on the peril facing our natural world.

Just so you know, making a film about wild animal is challenging. First, you’ll need your main attractions: the animal. But, unlike your regular actor/actress, these animals cannot spell C-O-O-P-E-R-A-T-I-O-N and do not bother to show up at the shot. Fortunately, there were local folks that the crew could rely on to guide them in the search for regional species. And speaking of regions, there were a lot to cover. In 1978, while making the series Life on Earth, the production team needed footages of more than 600 species living across 30 countries. They had to hired several filming crews in each locations and Sir David alone traveled an accumulated distance equal to two trips around the globe. Last but not least, safety was not 100% guarantee in these trips. In order to produce highly anticipated films, the crew had to travel to remote areas, such as the Amazon forest, Galapagos Island, Sahara desert, etc. Sometimes, they were spending months in these lands and exposing to deadly local diseases. Furthermore, unexpected encounters with wild animals also posed a threat to every member. Despite all the hardship, we can appreciate the beauty and wonder of nature described in the book as well as feel the love and enthusiasm of Sir David to all creations of mother Earth.

We have been warned about climate change, but now we hear from a legend about what he himself has witnessed since the beginning of his career. The book starts at the year 1937 when we had 66% wild area coverage and at the end in 2020, we were left with 35%. It is not simply a loss of land but the sustainer of life. Without the nurture of earth, the diversified ecology of that land could plummet, that leads to disappearance of many species, even the collapse of the whole environment. This means some animals we have seen on Attenborough’s films might exist only in old archives and can only be observe on a screen. In the book, we will come across a term ‘Shifting baseline syndrome’ which means: each generation defines normal by what they experience. I, myself, have experienced this new normal: the closest I came to a wild animal was in a restaurant, learnt their name through a menu and only gleamed at them through cages in some zoos. Our green planet could become a thing in the past, lost in time and greed. One day, human kind could wake up in a dystopia where we live in enclosed glass dome, breath in the air from filtering machine, walk under dusky gray sky; remember that we had been warned.

However grim the loss of wild life depicted, the purpose of this book is not to grieve but to reignite the love for nature in each individual and a call for changes and actions. Hope and solutions are placed at the end of the book for those who concern about the prosperity of us human. The choice is up to us!